Select committee: Education Committee
Conclusion 11
Third Report - The future of post-16 qualifications
Published 28 Apr 2023
Paragraph 53
Addressed to Department for Education
Education Committee The future of post-16 qualifications All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
T Levels are a rigorous qualification, and this is key to ensuring they equip students with the gold-standard technical skills required by employers and the economy. Nonetheless, we do not think that there is yet the right balance of rigour and accessibility. Early evidence indicates that schools and colleges are setting high entry requirements for T Levels, and we heard that as a result, T Levels could be restricted to a small pool of academically gifted students, who have a specific employment goal in mind by age 16. This is a concern, particularly for a programme that has, rightly, attracted over £1 billion of public funding.
From: Education Committee, Third Report - The future of post-16 qualifications (HC 55), paragraph 53, 28 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 5 July 2023 (deadline 28 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and says it shares its views on the importance of post-16 education, while setting out its own reforms and responding to individual recommendations.
- On Applied General Qualifications, the government does not support a moratorium on defunding; it says it is reforming Level 3 qualifications because too many have low or no enrolments and do not progress young people to related occupations.
- On T Level data, it says it is "not possible to fast-track" destination data, but plans to publish findings from the first cohort of the Technical Education Learner Survey in "late 2023 / early 2024".
- On the employer incentive for T Level placements, it has "no intention to continue or reinstate" it, but says a £12m employer support fund was launched earlier this year to compensate employers for placement costs.
- On maths to 18, it says it has already convened an expert advisory group, and commits to launch a fully funded mathematics NPQ for primary school maths leads, expected to be available to all primary schools "from February 2024".